Alfarell

A 305-post collection

Challenge #04753-M004: Enough of a Difference

Always so many this time of year. They were but infants, some with horns and tails, some with halos and wings. Some ordinary human, but born abnormal, some from other races. Left out on snowbanks, frozen middens, on game trails, or just sitting in frigid confusion, too cold and tired to cry anymore.

With magic and love, she brought them into her traveling tower. She was a harvest maiden, and she harvested the discarded and unwanted. Her family, formerly discarded, helped her raise her harvest, her beloved little seeds of life. So they could go out and harvest themselves, there's a reason so few abandoned died these days in this world. But it was a sad harvest indeed. -- Anon Guest.

You may know the rhyme: There was an old woman who lived in a shoe... The boot, once worn by a Giant, was just a starting point. A gateway to a portable tower. The chicken legs were a necessary addition to keep it moving between destinations. After all, only Giants are capable of easily moving their own shoes.

As for what she does with it... witness.

The small hours of the night, when such wicked deeds are wont to happen. A desperate figure, hunched over a bundle in their arms. Scurrying between places of cover, or veering away from any other signs of conscious life. All with one goal in mind - to find somewhere they could leave that bundle behind.

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Challenge #04750-M001: All Alone, More or Less

Victoria Constance Emalia Stanford has had the most dreadful week. Her birthday voyage has ended in an oh so unfortunate shipwreck, her favorite dress is ruined, and she’s washed ashore on an island inhabited by volcano worshipping natives. But, what’s this? Their so called God king is so handsome, so hot, strong like stone.

Perhaps next week won’t be so bad…

A sequel to https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04752-l365-his-little-sister -- Deathshead419

On one hand, providence and the kind

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Challenge #04752-L365: His Little Sister

Nineteen years have passed since Karkaul was blessed, and her son has grown into an able, popular priest of the faith. But now his father rumbles and the boy, who’s always seemed so human, must dive into the depths of his father’s molten core and seal that rift guarded only by faith in his heritage.

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04710-l326-pray-responsibly -- Deathshead419

Karkaul's son was named Nalani, and was almost typical of a demigod. His skin was as dark

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Challenge #04747-L360: Just a Little Help

When the child of humanity embraces the Divine Flame, they lost the gift to sense human hearts. From then onwards, their only purpose was to watch over the earth, bound to endless sea of stars and moons.

They continue to cherish life, yet could no longer perceive neighbours as living beings. -- Anon Guest

Humans should only become deities in retrospect. It's just safer that way. They do have the saying, Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

But there's always the statistical

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Challenge #04743-L359: Unwelcome Heroes

Outcasts. But they were completely immune to fire, and even heavy smoke did little more than cause one of them to sneeze a bit. So what did they do? Became one of the best fire-fighting brigades anyone's ever known. -- Anon Guest

They say that fire cannot harm a Dragon. They also say that heat rarely bothers a Devil. Of the two, Drakkonbred and the red-hide Kobolds are more likely to withstand a given flame. As for the devilborn, the only way

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Challenge #04742-L358: Gifted Family

The dragon was very sick, it knew, save for a miracle, it would not survive until its egg hatched. A human woman with an infant, kind, even if very poor. The egg gifted, a vision given, please take care of my child. The hatchling loved the human as if she had given birth to it. And loved its human sibling very much to. -- Anon Guest

Time runs away from all of us. We like to believe we have more than we

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Challenge #04736-L352: Not Another Faerie Tale

A chimneysweep out late at night sees the darndest thing: a carriage racing away from the palace as it turns into a pumpkin. Even stranger, a crystalline slipper falls from the fleeing vehicle, one that fits the chimneysweep perfectly. And then, word spreads through the city that the prince is looking for the lovely lady who wore a glass slipper to his ball. -- Deathshead419

Just like trusting government systems based on waterlogged women handing out swords, one should not chose eligible

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Challenge #04732-L348: One Taste of Home

The camp was quiet save for the soft sound of weeping. Bibrid, in their guise as gnome, sat next to the young individual and asked what was wrong. The person was homesick, but it would be at least another month or more before they got to see home again. He, of course, listened and his best to be soothing. He understood what it was like to miss one's home. -- Anon Guest

It does a child good to spend some time away

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Challenge #04727-L343: Earned Adoption

The human family wept, for illness robbed them of being able to have children. The kobold warren nearby decided to trust them and brought a nest of eggs. They loved the young kobolds as deeply as they would their own flesh and blood. And the sorrow was turned to joy. -- Anon Guest

The good news, such as it was, was that Hirren and Aldin had survived the mumps. The bad news was that it had stolen the young couple's ability to

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Challenge #04721-L337: Den of the Unwelcome

Where can someone go when the world is on the hunt and there seems to be no safe harbor? -- Deathshead419

The thing with running was... you had to keep running. Stop and relax, and they would catch up with you. You learned a thousand ways to stay out of sight. You learned a hundred ways to avoid notice. And you had to learn what was safe to eat more than once. Especially if you wanted to survive for one more meal.

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Challenge #04719-L335: Newfound Family

Come to find out, this a new kind of fae. Magic, it seems, can sometimes spontaneously poof life into existence when there's a sudden buildup, like this youngster. Choosing a name was one thing, but learning how to care for them was another. There was going to be a learning curve for both. First, clothes, then, food, maybe? This very young one was going to be their foundling, but they were also going to be quite an education.

https://peakd.com/fiction/

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Challenge #04717-L333: Sweet Justice

One of the waitstaff, technically they were still just a trainee at the Drunken Horns, when the adventurers returned a few nights later to, once again, enjoy a party, yes they DID make reservations first, asked softly. "So.. what happened to the watchmen bullies?"

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04627-l243-money-with-menaces -- Anon Guest

Mudita, as a young adoptee of the Drunken Horn, had been on cart service when the corrupt Watch squad came in. Watching a bunch of evil-minded goons get comeuppance

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Challenge #04715-L331: Lossless Operation

Oakroot showed them the place where he came from. A place where kids were all but farmed out, or tossed out of thought of as worthless. The ones who owned that place... disappeared. The adventurers had their base of operations now, and lots of new sons and daughters to help. The first time the sound of honest laughter from a child was heard, some in the party wept, for they were healing.

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04643-l259-found-family-free-fuddlement -- Anon Guest

Oakroot

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Challenge #04714-L330: A Simple Misunderstanding

The dragon had so much gold in their cave that their hoard, built up over many generations, had gotten way out of hand. So they began to melt the gold into jewelry, though that did tarnish it. But it was not to give to the rich. Each piece was carefully crafted and handed out to poor travelers in the forms of bracelets or necklaces. And in each one a dragon's blessing. Vicious animals, and cruel opportunists, would feel the need to be.

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Challenge #04711-L327: Patience of the Doctor

They called me freak and fled. I realized, it was not prejudice, it was fear. They constantly had bloody noses, and not from being struck. I had no choice, I gently sedated them and checked them. It's good I did, they were not long for this world. Now, they will be able to grow up into an adult. -- Anon Guest

[AN: This prompt was rearranged from being freeform poetry for space reasons.]

Life should never have settled in this place, but

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